The recording is a portion of an 80-minute meeting in May, 2012, about then-Superintendent Sebring.

The recording was made public following the settlement of a lawsuit that involved former school board member Graham Gillette who sued the school district, claiming the board discussed items other than the stated reason for the closed meeting.

During the meeting, President Teree Caldwell-Johnson gave suggestions to board members on what to say when asked about Sebring.

Former board member Dick Murphy also talked about the potential media attention the Sebring story would bring.

"We're not going to get involved in the media circus that's taking place, and there's going to be a media circus taking place regarding what is going on now" Murphy is heard saying.

"It's going to go on in Omaha, it's going to go on in Des Moines and it's going to be a big story," he said.

"And I think that to the extent that people ask you questions, etc., you know, you get hit up in the grocery store, you know. I think it's easy to go, you know. What she wants (is) to have some additional time to prepare herself," Caldwell-Johnson said on the recording.

Caldwell-Johnson would not answer KCCI's questions at Tuesday's school board meeting.

Long after the 2012 board meeting in question, it was revealed the reason Sebring wanted to leave early was the discovery of sexually-explicit emails she sent to a man, using school computers and her school district email account.

As part of the settlement, the judge ordered the Des Moines School District to pay $6,000 in legal expenses to the ACLU of Iowa, which represented Gillette.

Murphy said at the time, the board had to be vague about Sebring's departure because it was a personal matter and they feared she might sue the board.

Gillette said the tape clearly showed the board was trying to mislead the public and that he hopes a lesson is learned.